Two Mississippi Ave Octets

Existential Mississippi Ave Octet #1

sky has made space to the west for one airplane

though it chooses perhaps to steer into clouds—

who can say what this wind had to do with that?

the cars traveling south utter golden words

formed in fiberglass lungs; the cars headed north

speak in a crimson language electric with

vanishing & absence; going before me

a single leaf scrapes pavement, lonesome from birth

                                           ◦           ◦            ◦

Existential Mississippi Ave Octet #2

breeze through the bamboo whispers something yellow

I can’t make out—then what it has to say turns

                       

green tinged black; the red metal bench catches light

along its contours—do people sit there at

times? orange bikes have come home under ash trees

across the avenue; bike racks on this side

stand vacant; if I could catch the bamboos’ drift;

if we could get lost in words on that red bench

Jack Hayes

© 2017